Seaver is Pepperdine University's College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. As part
of a University founded on Christian values, we provide a superior liberal arts education,
along with unique opportunities for personal discovery.

Jonathan Crabtree ('07)

Jonathan Crabtree ('07) recently authored two publications for Beautiful Feet Books, Inc. This innovative educational publishing company based in San Luis Obispo, CA is dedicated
to engaging students by creating history curricula with the best literature available
to construct studies that are academically strong and easy to use for both teachers
and students. Knowing that great literature can nurture a love of reading, a fascination
with history, and an appreciation of the best literary works, Beautiful Feet has published
and provided public, private, charter, and home schools with excellent children's
historical literature for over thirty years. During that time, thousands of students
have discovered the joy in learning history through literature.

Jared Whitney Photography

Both of Crabtree's publications are study guides that usher students through United
States and World history from Antebellum to the present day. They use works by authors
skilled at capturing the reader's imagination, and which bring history alive to help
students relate their own experiences with those of historical figures. The award-winning
books hand-picked for these studies are historically accurate and convey the great
stories of history to students in an engaging and inspiring way–something a textbook
rarely accomplishes. Rounding out the guide are important primary documents, quotations,
and website links that allow students to go deeper into the historical events and
themes themselves. Drawing upon his experience during two semesters of Great Books
with Dr. Michael Gose, Crabtree is proud to include a "Great Ideas" approach in the
high school version, which gives students the opportunity to explore the two most
important ideas with which the author deals in each piece of literature, which helps
link the story to today.

Prior to writing these guides, Crabtree taught in classrooms for over seven years.
He completed a two-year commitment to Teach for America at an ICEF charter middle
school in Los Angeles, and stayed an extra year. He also spent a year in Hartford,
Connecticut, pursuing a Master of Arts in Educational Psychology and Gifted and Talent
Development at the University of Connecticut. At the same time, he taught for a year
in the nation's first full-day school for gifted and talented inner-city youth, the
Dr. Joseph Renzulli School for the Gifted and Talented. He is currently working on
the memoirs of his wife's grandfather, who commanded a tank for the U.S. Army in Europe
during World War II.

His study guides can be found HERE for middle school level and HERE for high school level students.